Unexpected
by ChapstickLez
Summary: There was a funny thing about being able to see the future. It didn't mean she always understood it when she saw it but, sooner or later, she figured out what it meant.


_This is a one-chapter one-shot somewhat supernatural Golly fic. And it came from a generic prompt:_

 _Person A of your OTP has the ability to see the future. They never really emit much of surprise to anybody because they know it_ _'_ _ll happen. Then, one day, they experience something that isn_ _'_ _t supposed to happen. They trip over someone. That Person is Person B, who has the ability to change reality to their favor._

 _How does A react to B? Hostile? Happy that they met someone they don_ _'_ _t understand?_

 _BONUS: Person B tells Person A they made them trip because B couldn_ _'_ _t think of a better way to introduce themselves._

* * *

 **DISCLAIMER: I own nothing about Rookie Blue or the characters from the show.**

* * *

The unexpected happened. Which was, in and of itself, unexpected.

"Jesus, Peck you okay?" Cruz grabbed her arm.

Gail picked herself and frowned. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Get off me." She shook her arm.

"I have never seen you screw up, Peck."

She eyed Marlo and shook her head. "Yeah, well, it was bound to happen."

Cruz looked worried. "Peck, seriously. You never even sneeze in the wrong place."

"So they say."

"It's like you're psychic or something. Creepy as hell."

Gail rolled her eyes. "That's me. Toronto's very own _That's so Raven_."

And the hilarious thing was that she was.

Psychic, that was.

That was the one good thing that had come out of the whole Perik fiasco. While entirely limited in scope, Gail's trip on psychotropics and the door to the face had given her the ability to see into the future. Kind of.

At first it had been snippets, like she'd know who was at the door or on the phone before it rang. The last person who had surprised her was Traci showing up at her hospital room. Then it had gotten weirder. She'd managed to avoid her parents perfectly, she'd predicted outcomes with unerring accuracy. It was spotty with strangers, like the kid who slushied her, but then she figured out what was happening.

The first time it really kicked in, and she'd understood exactly how it worked, was at the football stadium. She had seen, in a second, the outcomes of what would happen if she searched the perp and found his gun.

He would have gone home and murdered his family.

The moment Dov asked her to swap arrestees, she saw it as clear as day in her head. Make Dov wait and the perp he had would cause a riot. The one she had would be found carrying, he would get out on bail, his wife would yell at him, and he would snap. He would snap and strangle his wife and unborn child.

What the hell kind of sick choice was that? She'd had to let him, and his gun, into the station. Even knowing he'd be killed, she had to. Two lives versus four. Five if she counted the wife being pregnant. It made her sick, but she had to do it for the greater good.

And then, in lockup, then she had that second premonition. If she didn't take the fall, Chris would be out on the street and doing drugs. At least she saw herself making it through, but it would be painful. Her family would be disappointed and cut her out of ... Out of something. She couldn't quite tell, though she'd made a few inroads since.

The ability had gotten better, or worse, since then. She didn't always see everything but she saw enough. She knew Nick would cheat on her if she didn't first. And knowing, either way, that Nick was going to end up dumped by McNally, she gave up on him. Or gave him up, whatever.

The downside was knowing so many things ahead of time. Gail knew Marlo and Sam were doomed. She liked Cruz and felt bad for her, but what could she do? Shit, she couldn't even tell Cruz that going off her meds would end up with a shooter in the station, because the other versions of that ended with Chloe and Oliver dead. One of those she could live with. The other not so much.

She still struggled with the mystery of her parents and brother. There was something Peck going on, and it was tangled up with the new chief, Santana, and Oliver, but it was too far out. It also had to do with a little girl named Sophie and a very annoying detective named Frankie.

Still, there was today... Today she knew they were supposed to be here, in the park, and find a body, but she wasn't sure why. It was one of the more hazy visions she'd had since it had all sorted itself out.

She'd seen the teen couple and the body and them calling for backups and then she slipped and fell. The falling didn't make any sense at all either. She'd just _not_ seen the fall. She brushed off and looked up as the second unexpected event of the day occurred in the form of a woman walking up to the tape line.

"Hey, lunchbox. You're not allowed down there."

The woman smiled and kept walking. "Thanks. Appreciate it."

Gail frowned and eyed the weird lunchbox in her hands. "No, I said you're not allowed down there."

The woman paused and touched her own chest. "Me? No, I am. I need to get some samples."

Blinking, Gail asked, "Who _are_ you?" She concentrated on the woman and came up with so many possible futures, it nearly gave her a headache. Everything kept moving. That was _not_ normal, not at all!

"The forensic pathologist." The woman smiled, as if Gail was the slow child.

"Well, you should have told me that before."

"Sorry, I thought it was obvious."

"Only to nerds. Can you come back later?"

"You're not up on your medical jurisprudence. We need to determine the cause of death. I test the water for diatoms, and if we find diatoms in the bone marrow— Oh, did you notice if the femur is still intact? I'll check later. If the diatoms match, we know the person drowned. If there aren't any diatoms, then we know the cause of death was something else. I'll need to consult with the forensic anthropologist, I'll grab some leaves, bugs, dirt so they don't have to come back. It helps in identifying the postmortem interval."

The words washed over Gail. Words she had not expected or predicted. The woman was outside her senses, and it was terrifying. Swallowing, she covered with animosity. "Why are you saying all these words?"

The woman, Dr. Stewart by her name tag, laughed. Gail watched her get to work with a scowl.

"That's twice today," said Cruz. "You having an off day?"

"Apparently." Gail frowned more. Why the hell was this woman a blank spot to her? If she concentrated enough, she could tell that Swarek and Traci would find the killer, but he was a cop. The dead man, boy really it seemed, had been beaten by his father.

The details on the past were lost to her. The ability to look ahead did not come with the power of seeing what went before. She couldn't even tell if people were lying, not really. Gail had sorted out the lies based on the future, but it wasn't really something she could depend on with any regularity.

But. She could see that Sam would solve the case, Cruz would have nothing to do with it, Traci would be shocked, Oliver would end up flirting with a witch named Celery whom Gail knew to avoid as much as possible. And if Oliver followed Celery's path, he would find love, buy a cabin in the woods, and live happily ever after as a sergeant ... And then for herself, there was a path with blank spot.

The morgue. She was in the morgue with a blank spot. Or she was with the interviews and someone would throw crap at her. Gail studied the back of the forensic pathologist. A blank spot. Gail couldn't see her future. That was positively chilling. She could see so many things for herself. She could see her mother setting her up on blind dates, Chris' son being kidnapped and then a possibly weird spot again. Gail saw herself go into the lab and then ... Blank.

It was that woman. It had to be. She was altering the future faster than Gail's ability to predict— No. No their abilities were running at the exact same speed. She saw a future, Dr. Stewart altered one.

"Arright," said Swarek. "I need somebody to stay here, and, uh, someone to go along to the morgue."

If Gail spoke up, she could stay. She couldn't stay. She had to go. She waited and, as she had seen, Marlo lifted a hand. "I'll stick around."

Make it look good, she told herself. "All right. I'll go to the morgue." Gail caught Dr. Stewart's amused expression and shrugged. "It's never too late to learn about medical jurisprudence."

And so she found herself in the morgue with Dr. Stewart. Holly Stewart. Now that it was just the two of them in the room, she could concentrate more. Gail could see what she was doing, and it was astounding.

The doctor was altering the future to her benefit. Could she even ... Did Holly know that was what she was doing? Was it intentional? Was it instinctual? No... No way, she was doing it on purpose. As Holly examined the bones, first there was a metal plate without any clear markings and then, suddenly, there were readable numbers. A smile quirked Holly's lips.

Holy fuck.

That was some impressive control, Gail had to admit, even if it was giving her a migraine.

"So what are you doing over there, anyway?"

Without looking up, Holly replied. "Putting together a puzzle."

Ugh. She wasn't going to be led into a confession and Gail couldn't see it revealing itself. She would have to lure the woman old school. "What can you tell about the person?" At least Gail could check her vision of the future.

"He's a full-grown male. Probably early 20s. Not archaeological. His bones are still greasy." Holly paused and sniffed the bones. "And a bit smelly, you find?"

Gail hmmed. "I just thought that was you."

Holly did not rise to the bait. "We'll need to carbon date it, but I'd say he's been dead ten years."

Gail watched her rotate the bones and looked up. In a flash, she saw Swarek and Traci on the elevator. "The detectives are coming."

That startled the doctor. "What? Did you text them?"

"No, I just work with them a lot." She shrugged and picked up her phone. "What's the number on the plate?"

"Plate?"

"The one on his leg?" Gail knew the name was Robert Robbins, she saw herself telling Sam that. But she had to play the part.

"Oh." Holly read off the numbers. "Are ... You going to look that up?"

"May as well."

"You can use my computer."

Gail tilted her head. "You're not on our system."

There it was. A flash. The whole day shifted a half step to the left. "Uh, we are. Actually. As of this week. I guess they wanted to make it easier for you guys?"

Rubbing her forehead, Gail nodded. "Right." She went through the motions of the work, tapping things in quickly. It helped when she knew the outcome. "Robert Robbins. Born 1979. Huh." Gail took the notes she had to take and then sat on Holly's desk. "Swarek'll be here in five."

Holly narrowed her eyes and went back to work. But as Gail had seen, the detectives rolled up in four minutes and forty-four seconds.

Sam spoke as he walked in. "Any chance you got an I.D.?"

Holly eye Gail curiously before she spoke. "Normally, it takes longer, but in this case, buddy here has a metal plate in his humerus. All metal plates have a serial number."

Gail flipped her notebook open. "Yeah, his name is Robert Robbins. He was born in 1979."

And now it was time for Sam to get excited. "Robert Robbins? Uh, been there for, say, about ten years?"

Nodding, Holly looked a little interested. "That's my estimate."

"How did he die?"

"Don't know yet."

Gail absently concentrated on the discovery of cause of death and flinched. The avenues kept opening up.

People liked to think there were infinite paths to be walked. The truth was there were very few because humans lacked the ability to see too many of them. The butterfly could flap its wings all it wanted, and Gail still saw herself with inexplicably short hair by winter. Also a bathtub. It was very confusing, since the route there was jittering all over the goddamn place.

Normally the future showed her a flow of possible outcomes, all very similar in their routes, but a left turn here or there changed everything. Gail could see a clear inevitable ending, but not the journey. So many paths led to this outcome, she'd have to kill someone to change it. Actually it probably still wouldn't change. She would have to fundamentally change. Which was certainly possible. Take the breakup with Nick. She cheated on her boyfriend, which she never thought she'd do, but every single other path ended with him cheating on her and lying about it, and Andy cheating on him with Sam. At least this way she got to be in control of how much it hurt everyone.

No one would believe her. Even if, and that was a big if, they believed the part about how she could see the future, not a single person would hear her say she picked the paths that hurt the fewest people and believe her. Why would they? Gail was narcissistic, vain, and bitchy.

Gail sighed and barely paid attention to Sam, not that she had to. She knew what he was bouncing about already. Finally though, she watched him run off.

"Is he always that excitable?"

"He takes cases too personally." Gail rubbed her forehead, wishing the headache would go away.

"There's a bottle of painkillers in my top drawer."

The headache spiked again. Damn it. The doctor kept changing reality to her benefit. Gail grunted a reply and popped two pills. "I need a coffee. You?"

"Oh, yes please."

Experimentally, Gail reached out to the future. No glitching. "Sweet and light?" That worked. No headache.

Holly blinked. "Yes. How did you know?"

"I'm pretty good at guessing what's coming next." She smirked and went down the hall to the cart she'd seen earlier. While there, she checked her ability and found no headaches at all.

It was clearly tied to whatever Holly was doing. Any time she happened to be looking while Holly was tweaking things, it jolted her. Awesome. She checked her own timeline and decided to get a small box of donuts before going back.

Gail sighed and took her time before going back in. The break felt nice. As much as she'd started to enjoy Holly, the blips were killing her. But there was something magnetic about Holly. Dr. Stewart. The future saw her calling her Holly, but that wasn't right now. It was … later? Maybe. At the worst, it was a week from now.

Back in the lab, there was a jolt and then Holly was suddenly able to take a break. Damn that woman. They ate the donuts and drank the coffee, talking about common things. Holly was new to Toronto's lab, but a native of their city. She'd been working for a private lab for the last year, but coveted a spot with the Territory. And like magic it had opened up.

Sure. Magic.

But after the snack, and Holly going back to work, Gail found herself in need of a distraction. Holly wasn't nudging reality much. Maybe her ability needed to charge up? At first Gail's had. She could only use it reliably a few times a day in the beginning. She'd used it first, seriously, with Traci and that girl, Jordan Lewis. It had worked enough to get her Jordan's ID but not enough to get her safe.

She'd died later that summer.

Gail spent the rest of her summer playing with various aspects of her power. She'd started to finish Traci's sentences, which thankfully the detective thought meant they were good friends. And most importantly, Gail saw the flaw in her ability. No matter what, Gail was shackled by her own doubts. Her mother scared her and made it impossible to see her trail. Her father's went dark, multiple times, and for some god forsaken reason, Steve kept ending up in jail.

All those thing moved around, too. Sometimes there was an explosion and Steve went to jail after aiming a gun at Andy. Sometimes some rookie she didn't know died. Once or twice Andy died.

That was the other problem with the power. People changed their own paths daily. Andy's was particularly nauseating, in that it bounced back and forth between Nick and Sam and (surprise!) Luke over and over and over. That damn indecisive Girl Guide.

Whatever the reason, Dr. Stewart was doing pure, honest science now.

"You look like your headache is better."

"Yeah... Got anything to read?" All she could see was forensic magazines in her future, but Gail was unwilling to look further.

"Afraid not. My Kindle's filled with them."

"Nerd." Gail picked up the magazine on the desk. "An analysis of an autopsy." She made a face and peeked. If she asked, Holly's momentary loss of focus would result in a discovery that would unlock the case. "Do you really read this stuff?"

Without looking up, Holly smiled. "I wrote that stuff."

Gail did not have to fake an impressed look. Dr. H.G. Stewart. Of course. The G... Gail reached. Came up empty. Apparently the middle name wasn't in her immediate future. What was, was Holly finding a cause of death. Give it about fifteen seconds.

"Whoa, Nelly." Holly sounded shocked. There it was.

"What?"

"His left pelvic bones, his left femur, his left ribcage... This isn't deterioration. He suffered a major impact trauma." Holly looked up and gestured for Gail to come. "Look here."

Habit. She flicked her gaze ten minutes ahead and heard four explanations that made no sense. Science. "Yeah. No, I just see bones."

This did not seem to surprise or bother Holly. "Well, this guy was hit by a vehicle. You can tell by the consistency of the breaks."

Sam would want to know. Gail frowned and saw him taking a gun away from someone. Tell him now and the other man lived. She had a two minute window of opportunity. "Swarek. Robbie Robbins was hit by a car that night."

He sucked in a breath and Gail tapped speaker. "You're kidding me."

Holly looked a little startled but explained. "Major blunt force trauma to the left side of his body."

Sam repeated, as if he was shocked. "Hit by a car?"

Gail reminded him of the facts. "We found him in the woods a quarter-mile from any road."

It was Traci who sounded skeptical. "Maybe he didn't kill himself. Maybe somebody ran him over and dragged him into the ravine."

That cheered up Sam. "And I got my homicide. You find any traces of codeine in his remains?"

Holly eyed Gail. "We're doing a limited screening on some strands of hair."

"Okay. Good. Um, anything else?"

The conversation seemed to be weirding Holly out, so Gail offered some notes. "This guy has had a lifetime of broken bones."

That kicked Holly into action. "Look at the skull an improperly healed orbital bone. His clavicle was broken, his humerus, both his scaphoid bones. These are from before he was fully grown."

Grimly Sam spoke. "All at the hand of his father, by the sound of things. Any chance you can tell us what kind of car hit him?"

Nodding, Holly touched the pelvis. "You can tell from the impact here along the pelvic bone and left rib cage that the driver was in a larger vehicle."

Traci sounded surprised. "What, like a bus?"

"More like a truck. I'll see if I can narrow it down. Find some paint particles somewhere."

Sam sighed. "Thanks. Call me with anything else." As Holly reached to hang up the phone, Gail caught her wrist and shook her head. Sam was going to ask one more thing. "You havin' fun, Peck?"

"You told me to be here." She smiled at Holly, who smiled right back. They both looked at Gail's hand on Holly's wrist and Gail flushed. "Sorry." She let go and tapped the phone to hang up.

"I'm sorry. It's your phone."

Gail waved a hand and shoved the phone away. "It's subsidized."

"Wow." Holly laughed. "This could take a while."

"I have nowhere else to be. But. How about I get lunch."

"Practically dinner."

"I'm hungry now." Gail's stomach growled for emphasis. "Any place for a good, quick meal?"

Holly smiled again and Gail felt a funny ping. It wasn't the one from Holly screwing around with reality. This was more familiar, an older feeling she'd not had for years. She'd had this feeling back when she'd thought Nick was worth a date or two. "There's a good wrap place across the street." Holly looked momentarily wistful.

Hm. Gail carefully looked for the receipt. "Tempeh, tomato, avocado, quinoa and ... Kale?"

The doctor looked shocked. "How do you do that?"

"I'm good at reading people."

"You should be a detective."

"Eh, I don't actually like people." She picked up her coat. "Half size. I'll be back in fifteen."

Holly laughed. "You are incredibly optimistic, Officer Peck."

No, she just knew things. "Diet Sprite. And call me Gail, Doc."

"Holly. And ... Damn it, yes a Sprite!" The laughter followed Gail out.

They spent the rest of the day with Holly going over the bones and finding (as Gail knew she would) evidence that supported Sam's increasingly horrific theory that a cop had accidentally killed Robbie Robbins and covered it up.

It took a few more hours, but they closed the forensics side of the case. While Holly packed up, Gail stalled. As the day had dragged on, Holly had used her little ability less and less, and Gail discovered how wonderful the morgue was.

Holly noticed it too. "Something tells me you like it here."

Gail spun around on the chair. "I could live here." She sighed. It had been nice to have a day where she didn't have to (couldn't really) use her powers. Gail had, perhaps, gotten too used to looking at a million possible futures. For the most part, science had but one future. Until her idiotic relationships. "Holly I'm like a cat. I'm very good at climbing trees. And then the minute that I get up there, I don't I have no idea what to do. I wanna get down, but I don't know how to do that. So I create an emergency situation to get out of it."

The doctor scrunched her face up. "Out of the tree?"

"Of relationships."

Holly made a face of understanding. "Yeah. I used to be like that. But it turned out I didn't like men." She held out Gail's jacket.

With a sigh, Gail got up and shrugged it on. "Oh, I don't think I like men, either."

"I mean, I'm a lesbian."

"Oh." Gail had not seen that coming, which was very weird. She was enjoying not knowing the future a little, especially with Holly. But still, she deflected. "I mean I hate people."

And Holly laughed at her. "What are you doing tonight?"

As they stepped outside, Gail absently, reflexively, looked to see her night so she could answer the question. Maybe there would be some serious drinking. Zing. "God damn it," she snapped, pressing the heel of her hand to her forehead. "Holly can you please stop doing that!"

Holly froze. "What?"

"You know what!" Gail hissed. "I like hanging out with you, but goddamn it, you are giving me a migraine every time you diddle."

The doctor laughed, shocked. No. No. Astonished. "Diddle?"

"Fiddle. Whatever the hell you're doing. You keep ... _Moving_ things."

"Things?"

"The future."

Holly stared at her. "You... You can see it?"

Gail nodded. "Yeah, I can. And then you do that thing and it changes, and fuck it's given me a headache."

"Oh my god... I'm so sorry." Holly covered her mouth. "You tripped..."

What? Gail eyed her. "You're why I fell! You and your stupid lunchbox."

"Technically a forensic kit... I ... " Holly looked stricken. "You'll laugh."

"Try me."

"You won't believe me."

Now she rolled her eyes. "Jesus, Holly. I just told you I see the fucking future and you're stalling about telling me how you tweaked reality?"

Holly blushed. "When you put it that way..." She sighed. "I can nudge things. Like... I can make small things happen that work out to my benefit."

"What? Only good things?"

"So far. I tried to make myself fail an exam once." Holly made a face.

"Didn't work, huh?"

"Nope." Holly sighed.

Gail narrowed her eyes. "Changing the computer system and making a bone plate appear are small things?"

"Um. No. Well yes, but no. The computer system was due next week. It's in now, I just made my computer the beta. Turning it on. It... It works better if its for someone else. The plate kinda blew me out for the day. But I knew you wanted an ID."

That... Gail sighed. "Okay. That's impressive."

"What ... You?"

Her what? Oh, that. "I can just see things. Can't really change them. I see the options. Just pick one of the available and hope it's for the best."

"Yikes... Not always to your benefit?"

"Depends on what you mean." Gail hesitated. "I try to pick the best one for everyone."

Holly gaped. "What? You ... You take the crap on purpose?"

"Well. Yeah. I'm a cop." She frowned. "And this does not explain the stupid fall."

The other woman blushed. "I thought you were cute." Gail blinked and stared. "I was going to use it as an excuse to talk, and then you ... Um. Called me lunchbox."

"I'm not cute," Gail said, indignantly.

But just then, without actually trying, she saw the future a little more clearly. Holly had tweaked reality to have an excuse to talk. Holly wanted to talk. Holly tweaked reality for Gail, when normally it only worked for her own benefit. Holly was a lesbian. As soon as that locked in, the block was gone on the mysterious haircut. Holly was looking at her with wanton eyes, sitting in a bathtub. Kissing her.

And it was one of those things that she knew was going to happen. Just like she knew Steve would, for some reason, go to jail, and Andy would marry Sam, Gail knew this was inevitable. She would kiss, and want to kiss, Holly Stewart.

That was the funny thing about being able to see the future. It didn't mean she always understood it when she saw it but, sooner or later, Gail figured out what it meant.

* * *

 _The End_

 _At least... That's all I can see for now._


End file.
